England 3: Tuesday in London, with less drama

Of course there was a teeny bit of drama, but it was minimal. Compared to all the other days, at least. With Kim calling her relatives about the Cat Bite Incident (which by Tuesday had settled down to just a irritable simmer) and me calling Baker B and talking for ages in the evening, we burnt right though our hour of Cheapie Vodofone Pay-As-You-Go minutes and needed to, as they say, Top Up. Naturally, topping up could not be easily done. Mostly because by the time we stumbled on our Phone Solution the previous day, we were so drama-drained that I did not sufficiently process what the very helpful Vodafone girl told me about adding minutes. I think I’d just hit The Wall, and by the time she was explaining how to top up, I couldn’t take in one more bit of information and was pretty much standing there nodding my head as the wind whistled through it.

So when I tried topping up through the website Tuesday morning, I was horrified to discover that I needed a UK credit card. WTF?!?! I called the number you could use to top up over the phone and got the same message. I finally called their help line, and they told me I just needed to go to any shop who did top ups, and get a voucher. There are tons of shops! she said. Grocery stores, drug stores, they’re everywhere!

“Does Boots do them?” I asked hopefully, because we always cut through a little mall in Stratford to get to the tube, and there’s a Boots there. “Oh, yes, Boots does them!” she said.

So on the way to the tube, we stopped at Boots. The guy at Boots told me I needed a card. They should have given me a card when I bought the phone, and I’d use that to buy minutes.

But….I had no card! I even had all the stuff with me from when I bought the phone, and … no card. The Boots guy was really nice — EVERYONE was really nice, as always in London, I was just amazed at how nice everyone was, no matter how clueless and idiotic we were. But he insisted I needed the card that came with the phone to top up and I had no card no matter how much I searched, and finally Kim and I decided we better just return to the Vodaphone store where we bought it and ask that very helpful salesgirl for a card. It was no big deal to go back there really, as we were going to Tower of London that morning and the shop was near Monument- the next tube stop.

Back we went to Vodafone, and the same really helpful salesgirl was there, and she explained very helpfully (and without laughing at us) that what I needed was a voucher, not a card. And the shops that did vouchers had a green sign in the window saying they do Top Ups – and I am certain she told me all that the previous day, but. Like I said. Brain had stopped processing. So the nice guy at Boots didn’t know what I was talking about, and neither did I, obviously. I bought another voucher there at Vodafone and she loaded it on for me again and, yippie! We were all set! And I’ll just note that when I did need yet another top up a few days later, we went to another store in the Stratford Center mall which did in fact have a Top Up sign, and bought a voucher and called to activate it and it took like ten seconds and was the easiest thing ever. I will remember all this for the next trip.

SO, with our Morning Drama sorted, we went on to Tower of London to play tourist!

We went to Tower of London on our first trip, but decided we really wanted to go back this time. Tower of London is huge, and very interesting, and even more important, I had watched The Tudors since the first trip and it had even more meaning now. Kim watched the first season, but needs to watch the rest. We didn’t see all of it the first time,either, so it was a worthwhile visit. Can’t remember if I already said this, but we bought the London Pass again, so needed to be sure we got our money’s worth. And I’ll note right now that we definitely did. If you are there a week and you are intent on sightseeing and playing tourist, the London Pass is worth it. We got it with a travel pass, and saved a ton. Next time I’ll probably stick to the free stuff- and maybe pay for one or two things- but we did very well on this trip with it.

Anyhow, London Tower is big enough to encompass a couple of visits. At least.

This time we took a Beefeater Tour. I don’t know why we didn’t do that last time. It was very interesting and very well-done, providing an overview of the Tower and its history. We also got the first female Yeoman Warder ever as our tourguide – Moria Cameron, who even has her own Wikapedia page!

It was a very crowded tour.

There were lots of other appropriately dressed people there.

If the ravens leave, the Tower will fall. So the ravens better not leave. Luckily they look pretty happy.

We also saw Tower Curiosities:

And strange armor for a variety of sizes:

And for horses:

And the replica of a mechanical monster for scaring off intruders:

And axes and masks for lopping people’s heads off:

Plus the spot where Anne Boleyn got her head lopped off:

There’s just so much in the Tower – it was a whole city at one time:

This was just part of the line to see the Crown Jewels. We didn’t stand in line this time since we saw them last time:

Part of a wall dating back to the 13th century:

The White Tower- the oldest building, begun by William the Conqueror in the 11th century:

Inside the White Tower:

Old and new:

And this has taken so long that I will have to wait till later for the second part of the day. Maybe.. tomorrow!!!